Class Action v. Hecht's "Worthless" Newbridge

[Albert Hidel]

We'll say this for NCU's founder and still de facto shot-caller Dr. Donald Hecht: he's consistent. All his projects turn to crap and lawsuits eventually.

Adding to the legacy of such shady operations as Balin Institute of Technology (fined half a million dollars, eligibility for Title IV loans terminated, and ordered to reimburse another quarter of a million dollars), American University of Hawaii ("at least" 1000 violations of Hawaiian laws, unfair competition and unfair or deceptive business practices), and SCUPS (blacklisted and banned in Thailand as a "diploma mill") we now can add his Newbridge College.

Students wanted jobs, but got debt instead

Friday, August 1, 2008

Consumer advocates say students need to be more cautious, better informed when they enroll in vocational schools.
By MARLA JO FISHER

Alice Romeros tossed aside her diploma from Newbridge College, a trade school she says promised her 12 years ago that hard work and persistence would lead her to a high-paying job as a medical lab technician.

Instead, Romeros said, she spent a year trying to get a job in the field, only to give up and go to work as a veterinary assistant, taking care of dogs for $7 an hour.

"This diploma wasn't worth a darn," said Romeros, who lives in Anaheim and said she only had an eighth-grade education when Newbridge enrolled her in its medical program.

Charli Graham of Rancho Santa Margarita, who recently graduated from American Career College with an ultrasound diploma, also now takes care of dogs, at a dog grooming business, according to her mom, Toni Espinoza.

Espinoza said her daughter spent $30,000 and still couldn't find a job in her field of sonography, because the college didn't tell her that employers would demand a certification that the school doesn't offer.

"She was continually told that she was not qualified," Espinoza wrote in a complaint she filed with the state Department of Consumer Affairs.

The experience of these graduates and many others like them illustrate the pitfalls of spending thousands of dollars on a trade school education.

Advertisements for schools on television, in the Pennysaver and elsewhere typically hold out the lure of high salaries and good jobs, for those willing to commit themselves to a course of study.

Each year, some 400,000 students are enrolled in the state's for-profit schools. At last count, 160 of such schools were operating in Orange County.

Patricia Puskas of Garden Grove said an ad in the Pennysaver led her to spend $8,000 to earn a diploma from InterCoast Colleges in Orange, in the hope that she'd be able to earn good money as a medical assistant. Instead, Puskas said, she now works as an office clerk, and still owes money on her student loan.

"I could never get a job in a medical office – not even doing the filing," Puskas said. "They told me I have to have a certificate or a degree. The only girls getting jobs were the ones who were bilingual, but they never told me that beforehand."

"We are readily available to assist any graduate in good standing," said Geeta Brown, president of InterCoast Colleges, disputing the information Puskas provided but saying federal law prevented her from elaborating.

"We are readily available to assist any graduate in good standing," Brown said. She also said in an e-mail that the college doesn't guarantee employment to its graduates and that a "successful job search is dependent upon a self-confident and well-prepared applicant with a pre-planned strategy."

Consumer advocates say that people need to do some serious studying before they sign on the dotted line.

"Students need to step up, be responsible and make sure they take a hard look at what they're getting themselves into," said Joanne Wenzel of the state's Department of Consumer Affairs. "They need to make thoughtful decisions, especially before they enter into any financial contract."

Wenzel formerly worked for the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, the state watchdog agency that regulated, investigated and took action on complaints against trade schools.

But that agency no longer exists, since its commission expired a year ago. Legislative attempts to re-regulate the business to date have not succeeded, amid heavy lobbying by the trade school industry.

A bill to reinstate a new, revamped bureau, SB823, sponsored by Sen. Don Perata, D-East Bay, passed the state Senate and is on the Assembly floor.

"We're pretty confident we'll get a bill to the governor, but we don't know if he's going to sign it," Perata spokesman Mike Miiller said.

Critics of SB823 say the measure is unwieldy and unworkable.

Meanwhile, lawsuits are the main avenue left for students who feel they were misled.

Newbridge and several other trade schools have class-action suits pending against them by former students, complaining that they were misled about their chances for employment.

One of the nation's largest providers of trade school education, Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges, which operated Bryman and now Everest colleges, signed a settlement in July 2007 with the California attorney general, agreeing to pay $6.5 million to settle allegations that it misled students.

Other trade schools and for-profit colleges have been accused by consumer groups of misleading students – an accusation they deny.

Newbridge's lawyer, Keith Zakarin, said by e-mail that the college "is very proud of the fantastic results achieved by its (ultrasound) Sonography program graduates."

"Seventy percent of the 2007 graduates were placed in great sonography careers," Zakarin said. "The salaries they're earning are also great. The average annual salary of the graduates was $45,760, and some graduates have earned, as a starting annual salary, $60,320."

Several graduates of the program who contacted the Register disagree, saying they paid $30,000 or more and can't find a job.

Personnel directors at hospitals and medical practices generally want their employees to be licensed or certified. Ultrasound technicians can earn $25 an hour, for example, but most employers want them certified.

Newbridge graduates aren't eligible to take certifying exams offered by the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonography until after they have at least 12 months' full-time job experience.

"You want to take a quality program so you get the training you need to pass the exam," said Kevin Ballinger, dean of health sciences for Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, which offers a sonography program for $20 a unit. "We tell people to look for program-level accreditation by an agency like the American Medical Association."

Twelve former students from Newbridge have filed a class-action suit against the college, alleging they were each defrauded out of $10,000 tuition because they can't get high-paying medical laboratory technician jobs they were promised.

Romeros said, in retrospect, she should have known something was wrong when the school initially admitted her in 1994, even after she took a qualifying test that she's positive she didn't pass.

"I didn't even know what half those things were on the test," she said. "But they told me I got an A."

Wenzel said that would-be students should carefully check out claims made by school recruiters.

"Sometimes, it's too good to be true," Wenzel said. "Schools, like any other commercial enterprise, will say a lot of things. But, are there really jobs making that much money? Call around to employers and ask about the starting pay and how many jobs are available. Ask what is needed for the job."

Former enrollees file class-action suit against Newbridge College

Friday, July 18, 2008

Students say college couldn't deliver on job promises in medical field.
By MARLA JO FISHER
The Orange County Register

SANTA ANA -- Unhappy former students have filed a class-action lawsuit against Newbridge College, alleging they were each defrauded out of $10,000 tuition by promises they could earn good salaries for medical jobs they were ineligible to obtain.

Twelve former students say they were persuaded to enroll on the promise that they needed only training from Newbridge to get lucrative jobs as medical laboratory technicians.

The plaintiffs said they didn't learn until well into the eight-month program that lab technician positions paying $18-$24 an hour require an accredited associate's degree that the school does not offer.

"They sold us a course we cannot get a job in," said Ernestine Latimer of Garden Grove. "I owe at least $8,000 to Bank of America now."

Newbridge's attorney, Keith Zakarin, with the Duane Morris LLP law office in San Diego, said the school makes it clear students will be eligible only for entry-level jobs after they finish their training.

"No one was misled," Zakarin said.

The lawyer said that it would not benefit the college to "enroll students in an outcome they cannot achieve."

"This school has been around since 1976 and is nationally accredited," Zakarin said. "They've served 4,000 to 5,000 students over the years, and this is the first time there's been any lawsuit or significant complaint. Overall, the majority of students have graduated, been placed in jobs and lived happily ever after."

The case

Newbridge College enrolls about 500 students on campuses in Santa Ana, Long Beach, Monterey Park and Glendale.

A PennySaver ad from Aug. 29, 2007, shows Newbridge advertising a medical laboratory technician job with "short term classes" and "no high school degree required."

The college also reported to the federal government that it was offering a clinical/medical laboratory technician diploma during the 2007-08 academic year for $9,950 to students who completed 36 credit hours over eight months, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But to become a licensed technician, candidates must have at least an associate's degree or possess three years' on-the-job training and pass a tough exam. The jobs pay $30,000 to $47,000 a year, according to state employment figures.

Without the license, students would only qualify for lower-paid jobs as lab assistants, for example, who freeze specimens or prepare blood or urine samples to be tested, said Debbie Wagner of Cupertino-based DeAnza College.

Wagner runs one of only two programs approved by the California Department of Public Health to train medical laboratory technicians.

"Why would they pay $10,000 to be trained for a job that doesn't pay any more than they earn now?" said the students' lawyer, Scott Schutzman, who filed the Orange County Superior Court lawsuit in June.

Confusing job titles

The confusion seems to result from changes in the state law that took place in December, when the Department of Public Health began regulating medical laboratory technician jobs and giving them more authority and pay. Before December, only trained scientists with advanced degrees were allowed to perform blood counts, urinalysis, cholesterol and other laboratory tests in California.

However, because of a lack of a workforce, the state began the process several years ago of changing the job descriptions to allow a newly created breed of trained and licensed medical laboratory technicians to perform those tests.

Wagner said that people in the field had been aware for years that the rules were changing and that, in fact, that's why she started DeAnza's program.

Newbridge students said they only learned they were ineligible for the technician jobs during a field trip to a hospital laboratory, when a lab director told them she would only hire them as assistants.

"We were told by our instructors that a (certifying) test for medical lab technicians was not going to be required until 2010," Latimer said. "Then, we get out into the field and find out they want all the MLTs to have the test taken. Then one of our classmates found out we can't even take the test; we're not qualified because we don't have a degree."

Associate vs. technician

Zakarin said that, prior to the change in the law, medical lab technician programs "did not need DPH approval" except for the aspects that included phlebotomy certification, which involves drawing blood.

The job to which he's referring, though, is that of a lab associate – essentially an assistant, not a technician who actually performs the tests.

"After the change in the law, the specific MLT job outcome required an associate's (degree) and because NC's program is a diploma program; it was not eligible for DPH approval of the entire program," Zakarin said.

"The program's title was accordingly modified as soon as possible after the law changed."